137 - Arthur I. Miller [28]
Alchemy was conceived of as a means toward understanding the “great chain of being”—in other words, all life—stretching from our “corruptible world” to heaven. There were two sorts of alchemist. Scientific alchemists, the forerunners of modern chemists and metallurgists, searched for ways to transmute base metals into gold and jealously guarded their recipes. The mystical school of alchemy, however, interpreted transmutation as a spiritual path to redemption. They considered their laboratory experiments to be part of an inner process of maturing while nurturing a contemplative attitude. Alchemy embraced the teachings of the Greek philosopher Proclus as well as mystery religions such as Zoroastrianism and the ancient cults of Isis, Mitre, Cybel, and Sol Invictus.
Alchemists postulated that everything, even metals, was made up of the four elements—earth, water, air, and fire—and that these four elements could be transformed one into another. They called this process of transformation the “circle” or the “rotation of the elements.” The goal of alchemy was to bring about a union of all four elements to produce the mystical fifth element—the quintessence, or the legendary “philosopher’s stone,” the ultimate state of enlightenment. In alchemical books the four elements were represented by the four sides of a square. The philosopher’s stone—referred to as the one, the perfection, and imbued with the power both to transmute base metals to gold and to transform man into the illumined philosopher—is represented by a circle. It is the light hidden in dark matter; it combines creative divine wisdom and creative power. Christians sometimes identified it with Christ, while Buddhists symbolized it as the jewel in the lotus.
The first step in creating the philosopher’s stone was to obtain the prima materia, the basic material from which all metals are derived, “philosophical mercury”—Mercurius, known also by his Greek name, Hermes, symbolizing the universal agent of transformation as opposed to the vulgar physical mercury of the scientific alchemists. Mercurius is present throughout the process of transformation from its dark beginnings (as prima materia) to its triumphant end (as the philosopher’s stone). In this way Mercurius participates in both the dark and light worlds.
Prima materia, in its turn, comes out of the union of male—sulphur (the hot, dry, active principle)—and female—argent-vive, or mercury (the cold, moist, receptive principle). In alchemical philosophy this union symbolized the wedding of man and woman, the coniunctio of King Sol and Queen Luna (sulphur and argent-vive). Sol (the Sun) is the male force of the universe, creative will. Luna (the Moon) represents the receptive female force, wisdom. The material world is generated out of sulphur (fire and air) and argent-vive (earth and water), that is, out of the four elements. Thus the conjunction of all these gives rise to the world of mysticism.
Alchemy and psychology
As he read more and more deeply in alchemical works, Jung realized that he had discovered the “historical counterpart of [his] psychology of the unconscious.” Alchemy provided an unbroken historical link between the ancient Gnostics of first-century B.C. and the contemporary world. Its roots went back through Gnostic writings to Plato, Pythagoras, texts attributed to the magus Hermes Trismegistus of ancient Egypt (referred to as Moses in the Kabbalah), and ancient creation myths such as the Enuma Elish from seventh-century-B.C. Babylonia.
The Hermetic view was that after the fall humankind had divided into two states, the male and the female. The alchemical wedding returns man to the original Adamic state—to Adam—thus reconciling opposing forces and creating the highest wisdom, which is the philosopher’s stone. The alchemical wedding releases the world-soul—the soul of the whole world—which had lain dormant until this reconciliation and